Welcome back! Pencils sharp? Highlighters deliciously fresh? Shoes shiny? Even for the most cynical of us academy CEOs, the new year starts with a certain frisson. The interminable, grinding headache and the aching face from the rictus grin as we try to reassure colleagues, in a tone that is a touch too high and just a bit too jolly, that the exam results will “all be fine!” are long gone. And instead, there is an electricity in the air and jittery butterflies in the stomach.

This is how you feel if you love schools. If, despite all the outrageous policy issued from on high (note, not just Sanctuary Buildings anymore, but direct from the tablets of No 10, no less), you genuinely look forward to those first days of September, full of promise and camaraderie and clean coffee cups and boxes of non-stale biscuits, this is the profession for you.

But beyond the pink-cheeked first flush of September optimism, this year, there may be reason anew for even the most Eeyore-ish among us to feel a little more sunny about our work and what lies ahead.

For there are whispers in the wind that with the long, hard - and sometimes attritional - years of the Wilshaw reign drawing to a close, further change may be afoot at Ofsted.

Let’s face it, the regulator has not had the best of summers: firstly, the Commons Education Select Committee took exception to the proposed appointment of Amanda Spielman, launching what amounted to a public censure of the new chief inspector in an attempt to derail her installation (if only they knew that the favoured candidate had already been derailed earlier in the process…).

And of course, this was followed fairly swiftly by the revelations that David Hoare, then chairman of Ofsted, had given a speech in which he shared his “insights” on the state of education in the Isle of Wight, declaring its schools to be full of inbred half-wits, his views garnered from the vantage point of a yacht - accompanied by a glass of chilled sancerre, perhaps?

However, there have been more fundamental rumblings about Ofsted for quite some time. Of course, those of us on the receiving end of the regulator’s missives are never going to be unbridled supporters, but it would seem that questions about the role of Ofsted have been percolating nicely for some time among those who matter in Westminster.

Reform our broken regulator

As such, we may well see a quite different Ofsted emerging from the embers in the not-too-distant future. And it’s about time. While the fury unleashed by Sir Michael disguised a deeper malaise at the heart of Ofsted, it has been clear for quite some time that all is not well - or indeed fair - with our system of regulation.

In a perfect world, inspecting how schools deliver what they are supposed to be doing would be straightforward. You would have a clear framework, communicating clear expectations, and inspectors would assess this on a consistent basis. And while the first two of these components broadly work, the third has always been the weak link. For inspectors are, despite appearances, human too. And they bring with them idiosyncrasies, baggage and prejudice.

We may well see a quite different Ofsted rising from the embers soon

And so, this CEO, for one, would celebrate if the rumours are true that Ofsted may soon be even less focused on assessing classroom practice, and instead rely on data, with inspection visits focused more squarely on safeguarding. The rise and rise of the RSCs provides an additional - and, in most cases, genuinely beneficial - check on performance, so there is no need to have armies of inspectors who persist in judging schools on how they are teaching, rather than the results that they are achieving.

Government tells us again and again that assessment is king. Ministers now need to live this mantra, and get on with reforming our broken regulator.

The Secret CEO is the chief executive of a multi-academy trust somewhere in England